Old Jarhead's Political SitRep for December 28, 2012
Your one-stop-shop for political news and opinion. Please forward to friends who need to be informed. This SitRep (Military for “Situation Report”) is created by many readers who send me items for inclusion, which I would have likely missed or skipped. And I can only spend at most three hours a night pulling stuff, plus the healthcare or economic stuff that crosses my desk at work. As always, I—and you—owe them thanks and appreciation. I post articles because I think they are of interest and will stimulate thought and discussion. Doing so doesn’t mean that I necessarily agree (or disagree) with every—or any—opinion in the posted article, or that I was able to verify the information presented, which is the responsibility of the author. I try not to post things that are false, or too far a stretch, regardless of the view point, but I don’t always succeed. As always on the Net, or in the legacy media, you must read critically and with skepticism.
My predictions on the “Fiscal Cliff”
Because the media will blame them if they don’t, Republicans will give in to Obama and raise taxes on a vague promise to cut spending in the future. The cuts will never happen, just as past promised cuts never happened, and the debt will continue to rise out of control. Capital Gains Taxes and Dividend Taxes will go up, investors will seek to avoid them and pull money from the market, thus reducing government revenue as has happened in the past, smacking the market, killing the elderly who are on fixed incomes from IRAs and 401Ks and reducing jobs as companies have to pull. Taxes on “millionaires and billionaires” –including couples who both work 60 hours a week to bring home $260k to get by in NYC—will go up, reducing the money they have to put in the economy and their incentive to work longer hours to get above $250k. The media will then praise Obama for these tax increases for being for “fairness,” and the debt will soar, for which they will blame Republicans anyway. The record number of Americans on programs like SSDI and food stamps will continue to grow—as long as you give the “head count” bread, they are docile. All this will hasten the inevitable fiscal collapse. We cannot predict exactly when it will come, as there are too many factors, but it is now inevitable. Romney and a Republican Senate might have postponed it a bit, but it was not to be.
How would various media outlets cover this story?
A short piece smacking the media on both sides. ~Bob.
Cartoon on Schools
Newspaper Publishes Gun-Owners’ Names & Addresses
Excerpt: The free and independent press has been operating tirelessly to ensure that citizens everywhere are treated equally and everyone gets a fair shot. Print journalists work hard to cover every possible angle; making sure to be fair and balanced in ever–ok, I can’t keep typing with a straight face. We all know that aside from a few select publications, legitimate journalism in the United States
And sure enough, their names are published! Sauce for the Goose….
Reporter on the story: Dwight R Worley, 23006 139 Ave, Springfield Gardens 3 Gate House Lane Mamaroneck , N Y 10534 (914) 694.5204. Editors: Cyndee Royle, 1133 Westchester Ave., Suite N110, White Plains, N Y 10604, 914-694-9300 Nancy Cutler 9 Woodwind Ln, Spring Valley, N Y. (845) 354 3485. Parent company of The Journal News Gannet. CEO Gracia C Martore 728 Springvale Rd Great Falls, V A 22066 (703) 759 5954 (Note to thugs--these people don't believe in guns, so are probably defenseless. ~Bob.)
Journalists’ Addresses Posted In Revenge For Newspaper’s Google Map Of Gun Permit Owners
Excerpt: A week after the Newtown massacre, The Journal News published an interactive Google Map with the names and addresses of gun permit owners in select New York cities. The bold move has escalated into a transparency arms race, after a Connecticut lawyer posted the phone number and addresses of the Journal‘s staff, including a Google Maps satellite Image of the Publisher’s home. “I don’t know whether the Journal’s publisher Janet Hasson is a permit holder herself, but here’s how to find her to ask,” read Christopher Fountain’s blog post. (Maybe the homes of gun owners won’t be the only ones in danger of burglary, now. Ron P.)
New comment on my 2009 piece, "I'm Tired," from Australia
Unfortunately this is not just a US Australia Australia Vietnam
Dignity is always in season: 100 members of the Navy Football Team serve meals to the homeless at St. Anthony's Dining Room on Christmas Day
Go Navy! ~Bob.
Excerpt: The Taliban suicide bomber detonated a van packed with explosives outside the main gate of Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost province as Afghan workers were entering the base. Two Afghan civilians and an Afghan soldier were killed and several more were wounded in the blast, the provincial police chief told Pajhwok Afghan News. The slain Afghan policeman stopped the vehicle before it could enter the base, and then the suicide bomber detonated the explosives, TOLONews reported.
Excerpt: Recent months have seen a former Marine from Indiana, a Tea Party activist from California and a nurse from Tennessee all arrested and charged in New York City for possession of firearms they had legal permits to carry back home. All were “nabbed” when they naively sought to check the weapon with security.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/cristinaodone/100195545/christians-are-not-just-for-christmas-the-fightback-of-the-faithful-has-begun/
Excerpt: Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury-in-waiting, has done more in the run-up to being installed as Archbishop than Rowan Williams did in the ten years he was at Canterbury. Welby's magnificent analysis of bankers' moral bankruptcy, delivered as a member of the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, earned him praise and respect from people within and outside the financial world. This is no woolly liberal who thinks money is beneath contempt; Welby is a confident man of the world who sees faith as a compass to guide market forces rather than as the scythe and hammer with which to destroy capitalism.
Student murdered because of his race
Excerpt: The most dangerous thing liberals do to encourage black mob violence is create a sense of victimization: That somehow people are somehow entitled to commit violence because they are members of an oppressed, protected group. That of course is the actual language of affirmative action: Some people belong to protected minority groups.
‘Best Moment Ever’ Or ‘Over The Top’? CNBC Anchor Takes Dem. Senator To Task For Fiscal Cliff Debates
Excerpt: A recent interview by CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo has been getting traction on both left-leaning and right-leaning sites since it originally aired on Thursday, with some throwing up their hands in applause and others saying she should apologize.
Seven Things Parents Can Do Post-Newtown Without Government. By Michelle Malkin
Excerpt: These simple common-sense steps are adapted from a post I published on my blog after the horrific Newtown , Conn. Del
Sen. Crapo apologizes after arrest for DUI
Excerpt: Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo (R) issued an apology Sunday after he was arrested in Virginia Alexandria
Tax chaos looms in wake of Boehner’s failed 'Plan B' proposal
Excerpt: The failure of House Speaker John Boehner’s “Plan B” could create chaos for taxpayers across the income spectrum. With a slew of tax provisions scheduled to expire in less than two weeks, a dive off the "fiscal cliff" could also complicate the chances for a fundamental rewrite of the tax code — something top officials on both sides have said they want.
Supreme Court won't block Obama health law's contraception mandate
Excerpt: The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to block the Obama administration's contraception mandate from taking effect. Justice Sonia Sotomayor rejected a request for an emergency injunction that would have shielded employers from the mandate.
Why kicking the can is still the best option on the ‘fiscal cliff.’ By Jamelle Bouie
Excerpt: While it’s lost in much of the conversation, the fact of the matter is that the “fiscal cliff” was an engineered crisis, designed by congressional deficit scolds as a way to force lawmakers into crafting a debt-reduction deal. As it turns out — and as you could have predicted last year — there’s little that can be done to bridge the large gap that separates Democrats and Republicans on the issue. And while the two sides may find a way to avoid the cliff, it also clear that, at this point, odds are low for a “grand bargain.” (So now I’m a “deficit scold”? I recall a progressive bitching to me that the debt under Bush was destroying his kid’s future. Been pretty quiet about the deficit now. ~Bob.)
The door-opener to America
Excerpt: At the end of this year in which election results reinserted immigration into the political conversation, remember that 2012 is the 150th anniversary of “the first comprehensive immigration law.” This is how the Homestead Act of 1862 is described by Blake Bell, historian at the Homestead National Monument of America near Beatrice, Neb., one of the National Park Service’s many educational jewels that make the NPS one of just two government institutions (the other is the U.S. Marine Band) that should be exempt from any budget cuts, for all eternity. (We need more immigrants, Hispanic or otherwise, an immigrant being a person who wants to join your culture, adopt your values, learn your language and participate in the social, economic and political life of the nation. We do not need illegal colonizers who want to impose the separate, corrupt, failed cultures they left here, which living as parasites on our culture and economy. Race doesn’t matter—culture is everything. ~Bob.)
EPA chief Lisa Jackson to step down
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/274641-epa-chief-lisa-jackson-to-step-down
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/274641-epa-chief-lisa-jackson-to-step-down
Excerpt: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, who rolled out the agency’s first greenhouse gas regulations and clashed often with Capitol Hill Republicans, announced Thursday that she is stepping down. (This may be the first piece of really good news since last May. While Obama will undoubtedly replace her with someone just as radical, it’s still a great symbol. Also, this is the first time I’ve heard anyone say Jackson
Indefinite Military Detention Of US Citizens To Be Signed Into Law By Obama
http://freedomoutpost.com/2012/12/indefinite-military-detention-of-us-citizens-to-be-signed-into-law-by-obama/
Excerpt: We’ve been trying to keep you aware of what has been taking place with the talks concerning the 2103 version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). We’ve covered the Fenistein amendment, which effectively did nothing, except to empower Congress to authorize the military at their whim to violate people’s 4th, 5th, and 6th Amendment rights. (I don’t know a lot about this—may be alarmist. ~Bob.)
http://freedomoutpost.com/2012/12/indefinite-military-detention-of-us-citizens-to-be-signed-into-law-by-obama/
Excerpt: We’ve been trying to keep you aware of what has been taking place with the talks concerning the 2103 version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). We’ve covered the Fenistein amendment, which effectively did nothing, except to empower Congress to authorize the military at their whim to violate people’s 4th, 5th, and 6th Amendment rights. (I don’t know a lot about this—may be alarmist. ~Bob.)
Saudi labor minister faces ‘deadly prayers’ from angry clerics
Excerpt: A group of religious figures in Saudi Arabia
Excerpt: Novelist Turki al-Hamad, 58, one of Saudi Arabia’s more unapologetic and outspoken liberal voices, is now in custody for a series of posts he published on his Twitter last weekend comparing fundamentalist Islamist ideology and its strict social controls to Nazism and suggesting that political Islamists like those allied with Saudi Arabia’s royal family have taken their adulation of Prophet Muhammad too far.
Gunmen Kills [sic] At Least Twelve Christians At Church Services in Northern Nigeria
Excerpt: International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that at least twelve Christians, including a pastor and a deacon, were killed by unknown gunmen in separate attacks in Northern Nigeria . The gunmen are suspected to be connected to the extremist group Boko Haram
Smugglers Galore. By Lee Smith
Excerpt: An explosion in southern Lebanon
2012: When dreams died. By Victor Davis Hanson
Excerpt: Barack Obama in 2008 won an election on an upbeat message of change in the hope that the first black president would mark a redemptive moment in American history. Four years later, the fantasies are gone. In continuing dismal economic times, Obama ran for re-election neither on his first-term achievements -- Obamacare, bailouts, financial stimuli and Keynesian mega-deficits -- nor on more utopian promises.
Guns, Gats, Rods & Heaters. By Burt Prelutsky
http://www.burtprelutsky.com/2012/12/guns-gats-rods-heaters.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+burtprelutsky%2FSQlQ+%28BurtPrelutsky.com%2
http://www.burtprelutsky.com/2012/12/guns-gats-rods-heaters.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+burtprelutsky%2FSQlQ+%28BurtPrelutsky.com%2
Excerpt: It was a heart-wrenching event and I personally hope that there is a Hell and that young Mr. Lanza will spend eternity being roasted over a slow fire. But I don’t blame his guns. I don’t blame the NRA. I don’t even blame the movies. I blame him.
Senate Democrats protect administration’s right to strip PTSD vets of guns
Excerpt: Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, wants veterans who have been deemed “mentally incompetent” to have their cases adjudicated by a judge — rather than the Department of Veterans Affairs, as happens currently — and argued that veterans who simply cannot support themselves financially are needlessly given the label and, as such, cannot buy or possess firearms.
Affirmative Action for Professors? By Ronald Radosh
Excerpt: Last week, Professor Jonathan Zimmerman of New York University
Excerpt: Some out-of-work Americans might have to look no further than our neighbor to the north for employment.
Professor: Global Warming “Deniers” Should be Executed
Another tolerant, civil liberal. ~Bob. Excerpt: The funny thing is, Professor Richard Parncutt of the University of Graz
I love happy endings: Sacramento
Excerpt: Sacramento
Excerpt: Budget policy in 2012 was characterized by deficit spending, major increases in the national debt, and a heated debate over the “fiscal cliff.” With just days left for President Obama and lawmakers in Congress to avert a major tax hike, sequestration, and other major policy changes, today we bring you a list of the top 10 facts on federal spending in 2012:
Beyond Benghazi : questions for Clinton
Excerpt: The State Department’s Accountability Review Board last week issued a devastating report on the events leading up to the Sept. 11 assassination of four Americans at our Benghazi
Mother of Benghazi
Excerpt: The extended Navy SEAL community around San Diego is talking about the details of the Libya
No Accountability for Americans Murdered In Benghazi
Excerpt: As with Fast and Furious, the designated scapegoats for the deaths of Americans at the hands of administration bungling will merely be switching desks. Only the maker of that irrelevant video is in jail. (The Administration cover-up of the Benghazi Del
Generation Y Wakes Up From the American Dream, Faces an American Nightmare
Excerpt: Three and a half years after the worst recession since the Great Depression, the earnings and employment gap between those in the under-35 population and their parents and grandparents threatens to unravel the American dream of each generation doing better than the last. (A very interesting analysis of what's gone on in our society. And bad news for a lot of recent graduates and for at least the next few graduating classes as well. There will be jobs for some technical specialties, but for a lot of others it will be a grim vista. For all those in the bottom third of Law School Del.
Excerpt: Chinese authorities have confiscated televisions from 300 monasteries in a heavily Tibetan part of the west of the country and dismantled satellite equipment that broadcast "anti-China" programs, prompted by Tibetan self-immolations in the region. (We won’t make a peep or they might cut off Obama’s credit card. ~Bob.)
Gunmen kill Muslim cleric in Russia 's North Ossetia
Excerpt: Gunmen shot dead an Islamic cleric in the internal Russian republic of North Ossetia , investigators said on Thursday, an attack that suggests militant Islamist violence in Russia
Petition Calls for Gun Free Zones Around the President, VP, and their Families
http://MinuteMenNews.com/2012/12/petition-calls-for-gun-free-zones-around-the-president-vp-and-their-families/
Excerpt: To gauge the disenchantment and dissatisfaction ofAmerica
Excerpt: To gauge the disenchantment and dissatisfaction of
Remembering Judge Bork. By Andrew McCarthy
Excerpt: Of all the wisdom that overflows from A Time to Speak, it is a thirty-year-old essay, “The Impossibility of Finding Welfare Rights in the Constitution,” that readers may find most relevant. In the waning weeks of last year’s presidential campaign, it emerged that Barack Obama, as an Illinois Warren Court Del
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